Saturday, February 14, 2015

Christian Fundamentalism

Pope Francis has appointed
twenty new cardinals
from fourteen countries

with more of them hailing
from non-European countries
than European

in an attempt to show
the Vatican's "inseparable link"
with Catholics around the world.

As if that weren't mushy enough
of an agenda

one cardinal
Soane Patita Paini Mafia

is from the island of Tonga
home to a tiny community
of 17,000 Catholics

and threatened by climate change.

Cardinal Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuanan
is from Panama

and has campaigned to protect
indigenous peoples.

Last January
among the nineteen cardinals
he nominated

were clergy from Haiti
and Burkina Faso.

He has said he wants to see
an overhaul of the Church

that would bring it closer
to ordinary people.

This rhetoric sounds similar

to what the GOP
has been declaring
again and again

they've wanted to do

but with Governor Rick Perry
out on the campaign trail

implying that his rejection
of Medicaid

was an informed decision
on the part of poor Texans
not to have health insurance

this style of tough love
seems to be selling
about as well

as the premise
for Fifty Shades of Grey.


This poem © 2015 Emily Cooper.